Wednesday, August 18, 2004

4:29 PM Today’s entry in the Crosswalk weblog is called What We Saw in Chuck Colson’s Office. 2:52 PM Answers in Genesis has a delightful article (with pictures) on how chameleons change colors called A Coat of Many Colours. 2:05 PM Another new book just arrived: The American Prophecies by Michael Evans. Subtitled “Ancient prophecies reveal our nation’s future,” Evans believes that America’s future depends on how we treat the nation of Israel. Students of Bible prophecy have long noted that the United States does not seem to appear in any biblical prophesies. Various theories have been propounded to account for this fact. Some suggest that the US will no longer be a superpower in the end times. Others believe the US will join some version of the “Western Confederation” headed by the Antichrist. Evans makes the novel suggestion that the US may become so identified with Israel that our fate and Israel’s are indistinguishable in the end times. I found the book well-written and well-documented, and easy to read. Chapter 4 (“Presidents in Prophecy”) contains numerous mentions of William E. Blacksone during his Oak Park years (1870-1900) lived for a time in what is now our west parking lot, and later wrote the classic book “Jesus is Coming.” He is considered the father of “Christian Zionism” for the Blackstone Memorial of 1891, calling for a homeland for the Jewish people in the Holy Land. As for Evans’ theory about the US and Israel in the last days, it may in fact be true, but there is no way to prove it from the Bible. The most we can say is that the United States does not explicitly appear in Bible prophecy. We are left to speculate on the reasons why. 2:04 PM Wednesday shout-out to John and Lisa Hunt, Nellie Schultz, Kathy Neubaum, Ken Sadler, and to John Hammond.